Within Wix.com’s Ukraine offices sit two critically important teams for the company – a product development team and a customer support team. The importance of these teams is best demonstrated by the relationship they have with one another.
Wix, the leading cloud-web development platform, was founded on the belief that anyone should have the ability to own their presence online. Twelve years ago, it was started with a Flash website builder and has transformed into a development platform that allows for modern design, advanced business tools and web application development.
The transformation of the company and the product offering lies directly between the product development and customer service teams. By listening to Wix’s customers, we are able to build a forward-looking platform that is responsive to user needs. This is done by creating a product cycle that surfaces customer requests, includes face-to-face interviews with users and product managers and makes sure what is needed gets added to product roadmaps.
Development is not only done based on issues that arise in support tickets. Wix teams rely on the deep knowledge of the industry – relying on a staff which is over half R&D to anticipate user needs or innovate products new in the market. This approach has allowed innovations that leapfrog the market like an artificial intelligence based website builder, a wide breadth of business verticals and by far the best drag-and-drop interface for design on the web.
Wix was founded and is still based in Israel, with offices in 14 locations around the world. Locations like New York City, Vilnius, Dublin and two here in Ukraine – Kyiv and Dnipro. Right now, there are over 2,400 employees globally working on making the best platform for owning a web presence and building a business.
Starting in 2011, Wix started to build our presence in Ukraine, starting with Dnipro and in 2016 in Kyiv. Expanding to Ukraine was a strategic choice for us because we knew that it offered a strong technology skill set that was ready to be quickly folded in the company. Wix relies on the staff in Ukraine for research, design, user experience and intelligence as well as customer solution.
One of the first employees in Ukraine, Nikita, tells the story of the office. When he was hired in 2011 as a QA Engineer, it was with two other designers and before any official office. With many trips in the first months to Tel Aviv for onboarding, the team started to grow – quickly.
Starting with only 20 employees, the staff in Kyiv was quickly ramped up to nearly 400. This shows our commitment to building Ukraine into an important part of the company and how impressed we have been with the quality of technology talent available.
Nikita also shows the growth possible for employees. He says, “Throughout these almost 8 years my position evolved from QA Engineer to QA Team Leader and then to QA Guild Manager. I’m more focused on people now, making sure they grow professionally and have all the knowledge and tools to assure quality of Wix Products. One thing that hasn’t changed over the years is my absolute feeling that this is the greatest company to be at in all aspects.”
While the company may be an established global presence and a mature player in the space, the culture in the office is that of a start-up. Where experimentation, innovation and a habit of teamwork is valued.
Wix has a global reach that informs the development of the platform. From the beginning, it was founded with a diverse and global audience in mind. This allows the development teams to solve challenging issues like developing an ecommerce solution that meets the needs of American, Brazilian and French business owners.
At its core, that is what Wix is. A flexible, robust and advanced platform for business owners, developers and designers around the world. The platform strives to meet the needs of a personal blogger, a fashion photographer and a multi-million-dollar business. Right now, there are Wix websites that were built with a platform that has been translated into 17 languages and used in over 190 countries. Few companies were started with that kind of reach in mind but working at Wix means thinking globally from the start when creating.
This do-it-yourself ethos is why Wix was started. The idea that everyone should be able to easily get online and control their presence. When it was founded, the only way anyone could was either extensive training in coding or having the money to pay someone else.
Since then, Wix has only increased what it offers. There is an advanced blogging interface so anyone who wishes to share their writing can – or to create a multi-author online publication. The ecommerce platform is the backbone for hobbyists looking to make some money on the side to businesses with thousands of customers that bring in millions in revenue. Management products like Ascend help businesses converse with their customers and grow their business with sophisticated marketing techniques.
So working at Wix gives valued experience into the world of building for the web while also providing the space to try new things. There is a satisfaction that is gained from talking one-on-one with a customer and turning their requests into a feature used by millions. With over 150 million registered users worldwide, there is no shortage of insight gained from a video call with a user.
Kyiv teams have already been integrated into the most critical product teams at Wix. Some of the latest innovations from Wix relied heavily on the development teams located here to meet deadlines and get products ready for launch. They are integrated with teams in Tel Aviv and around the world that are working every day to make creating for the web easier.
Looking towards the future, we will continue to grow our presence here. Right now, we have over 100 open positions with an overall goal of 600 by the end of the year. We need people with backgrounds in mobile development, business intelligence, user experience, visual design, and more.
